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<title>never been good at defusing situations by braigwen_s</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24740422">never been good at defusing situations</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/braigwen_s/pseuds/braigwen_s'>braigwen_s</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: Legend of Korra</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bombs, Gen, Swearing, When You Grew Up In Your Workplace So All Your Older Colleagues Are Honorary Uncle</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 03:55:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>486</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24740422</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/braigwen_s/pseuds/braigwen_s</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Twenty-one-year-old Lin Beifong is at work, accompanied by Toph's successor as Chief.  The fact she grew up calling him "uncle" is entirely irrelevant... until this.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Lin Beifong &amp; Original Uncle Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>never been good at defusing situations</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Drew a picture of young!Lin, suddenly my brain wrote a fic explaining it.  I am large I contain multitudes and all that.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    
  </p>
</blockquote><p> </p><p>“Uncle Kuhn…”</p><p>Lin hadn’t called him ‘uncle’ on the clock since she was seventeen.  Something was really wrong, and she was frightened.  He looked up, and saw what she was holding, and suddenly he was frightened too.  In one of her hands was a little ceramic pot, sealed up, with a cord hanging out of it.  The cord was burning steadily, and it was three-quarters to the pot, scorching Lin’s hand.  The cord was a fuse; the pot was a bomb.</p><p>“Shit,” he breathed, and the world was seeming to go in slow motion.  Lin was about ten metres from him, it was just the two of them in the empty construction site where they’d been chasing the bad guys.  Her arms were forward a little, outstretched to him for help, and her face was uncertain. </p><p>He kicked his brain into working.  “Drop it!” he yelled, “and bury it!”</p><p>“But what if –”</p><p>“<em>Just do it!</em>”</p><p>She whirled around, hurled it away from him at the ground, and started to kick.  She earthbent a casing of stone over the bomb, then added another layer then another, bricks coming up like tiles and then compressing down.  Finally, after kicking out seven times, she turned back round. </p><p>She began to run towards him.  She was most of the way there when it exploded.  The ground jolted and rumbled.  The mound she’d just made expanded and then split open in the space of part of a second.  Her stride turned into a jump, and she stumbled –</p><p>The little casing held – there was a flash of light from the mound, but that was all the fire he saw.  She had done it.  His most promising detective, his most promising metalbender, and most of all, unspoken, his charge passed onto him by Toph, his predecessor. </p><p>“You crazy little –” he yelled, and then stopped yelling as she reached him.  He hauled her bodily into a rough, crushing hug, clinging to her and tackling her into the earth at the same time.  “Lin,” he said.</p><p>She had buried her face in his shoulder, and she was hugging him back just as hard.  He’d have bruises.  “Uncle Kuhn,” she said, sort of sobbing.</p><p>He managed to gather himself.  “Next time,” he scolded her, his voice still raised, “don’t hesitate.”</p><p>She pulled in a sharp breath, and then pulled away from him.  She looked … dignified, like she had herself together.  Professional, that was the word.  “Yes, Chief,” she said.</p><p>He nodded to her.  Fucking damn her to hells, she was going to kill herself one day, and it was going to be as Chief, because there was never going to another person he’d promote to go after him.  There hadn’t ever been, either.  “You’re crazy,” he said, clambering to his feet.  “Let’s go back to HQ.”</p><p>She stood stiff-backed and facing him.  “No, sir.  We haven’t caught those eejits yet.”</p><p>He was very proud of her.</p>
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